Pecha Kucha / Ignite

[Dave Everitt]

I first came across this Pecha Kucha idea by stumbling over O'Reilly's Ignite events website (roughly: 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds each) and I'm preparing to run one at the place where I'm being... well, a thinking/ideas/research person.

If you've attended one (or more) of these events, I'd be really interested in your opinion about: what worked, and what didn't? How might it be adapted (if at all) for an academic or research environment?

[Jon Foster-Pedley]

We've used this quite a bit, thanks to an intro to the idea one party evening round a pool from Rob Hill of Ogilvy ZA - both for open 'unconference' evenings run by Dave Duarte (there's a couple of examples on his blog), in the Nomadic Marketing course and in teaching on the Creategy course, and sometimes in Executive Education programmes. I find that generally it works excellently, as long as there is a narrative/plotting structure - or some sort of storyboard - that allows a flow and coherence. Also, I think, it's like a cadence in the background to the presenter's performance, so I find myself thinking about the performance that I am aiming to give, and the impact that, more or less, i hope to achieve, and use the slides to keep momentum up and maintain rhythm. Oh, and images, more than words, I find.
I'd love to hear what others have found.

[Dave Everitt]

Thanks Jon, that's really useful information - especially the hint about storyboarding and the use of images. I can't find the examples on Dave Duarte's blog, though.

[Jonathan Foster-Pedley]

This should get you there, Dave. http://daveduarte.co.za/emotionally-intelligent-signage-pecha-kucha...
there's an example by dan Pink there.
I just thought again - the ending is quite important too as it can fizzle or be too hyper - not sure what but maybe a 'wicked question'/unanswerable dilemma - or a really funny/quirky/ironic example - or a 'go here for more info' link... hmmm

[Dave Everitt]

Being an Open Source advocate I'm alarmed to read that someone can own the 'rights' to something like Pecha-Kucha (or is that a joke?)... thanks for the pointer, I was thinking of mirroring the process after the presentations by offering one minute for each person with a single question/point, and another minute for the relevant respondee to answer them. I like the idea of ending on a conundrum or similar.

[Ben]

I've not been to an actual Pecha Kucha night, but we've used the 20x20 format for several presentations during weekly conference calls at work. It can be a great format for getting ideas across, and of course the time limit helps tremendously, to keep things moving along. Wherever you do it, know your technology, and be prepared for glitches. I've done it over a videoconference, which degrades the image quality. One time, I had to speak my voiceover without even being able to see the slides. So... know your script.

[Dave Everitt]

thanks Ben - it's good to read about your experiences. The evening I'd planned has been put off until more people are available, but when it happens I'll add feedback about it here.

[Jeremy Setzer]

Hi Dave,

I attended the first ever Pecha Kucha event in Cape Town last night.

It went really well, though some of the presenters didn't make use of their slides as well as they could have. The ones with stronger images worked better I found.

I think it's uses outside just the design community could be great. I know Dave Duarte used it in his Technomadic Marketing course...

I think some of the presenters didn't realize it requires a lot of effort to get your point across in the short time-span and they needed to link their presentations together better.

In a learning environment it's uses could be great as the attention span of learners is shorter than ever and with each presentation being roughly 7 minutes you never really lose concentration with this format...

Would love to hear if you have any success with it.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Dave Everitt]

Thanks Jeremy - some really useful comments. It does seem strong imagery works well for both presenter and audience. I'll now be running our event later this year, so will certainly be back on Huddlemind with a report and (hopefully) some video.

[TelcoSaint]

Hi Dave, Just browsing and saw your question on Peche Kucha, I had the privilage of presenting at Joburgs first show on Mobile Marketing. It was absolutely fantastic, as well as very challenging, the event had a great mix of people and speakers, mixing all the ideas from different industries from Hair fashion, Architecture, Mobile, Music, etc. Was great and it gave everyone huge exposure and I think it really helps with everyones creativity and gettting to undertsand how other people think in their respective industries, then using that thought process to cross pollinate.

Absolutely brilliant, we had no idea of what or how to present, just that we had 20 slides 20 sec each, which also makes it hilarious as we either spend way to long on a slide or just hanging around for the completion of what seems a very long 20 secs.

If you get a chance to go to one please do. Great fun and brilliant concept..

Here my presentation if any ones interested, have fun.

[Dave Everitt]

I never did run that event (someone else tried to organise it, but it seems the people at the Uni are all too busy to participate...), but it's great to get some feedback on how other people have experienced it. Nice slides!

[Jon Foster-Pedley]

I found a great guide to Pecha Kucha here http://avoision.com/pechakucha/. Hope it helps.